Pop Music Reviews : Styles Clash for Milton Nascimento

Milton Nascimento’s weekend concert at Royce Hall was a strange blend of the frivolous and the deadly serious. Mixed in among the Brazilian singer-songwriter’s familiar oldies at the first of Friday’s two shows was material from his new album, “Txai,” which focuses on the destruction of the Amazon rain forest. Some of those intense, solemn activist songs were accompanied by films.

But Nascimento the environmental activist encroached upon Nascimento the pop romanticist: The rain forest crisis didn’t exactly put you in the mood to appreciate love ballads.

The strength of his songs is their lovely, rhapsodic melodies. Playing often complex Brazilian rhythms, his band provided delicate, lyrical undercurrents that enhanced the sensuality of the melodies. Some of the ballads, however, tended to sound too sweet--his only substantial flaw.

Nascimento came across as sincere and affable while projecting a gentle dignity.